Grade Level: 7

Unit: Micro-Life

Assignment type:

Lesson objectives:
  • Student will understand how infectious disease is spread
  • Student will be able to create a graph detailing "the spread of infectious disease int the classroom"
  • Student will understand how to prevent the spread of infectious disease

Time required to complete this lesson: 2 days

Title of lesson: Infectious Disease

Resources/materials needed:

Description of lesson:
Day 1- We will discuss important events and people who discovered bacteria, viruses, how infectious disease is spread, as well as how treatments were developed. Students will then create a Blabberize on a pivotal person in history that made a discovery in the field of infectious disease. Below is an example of the Babberize.
Day 2- We will be doing an "Infectious Disease Lab" to give a visual example of how infectious disease is spread through human contact. Each student will be given a cup filled with water, 1 student will be given a cup that has been "infected", the water will be dyed blue. Each student will interact with another student, pour all of your solution into their partner’s cup. Then have their partner pour all of the mixed solution back into your empty cup. Finally, pour half of the mixed solution back into your partner’s empty cup. The students will than move to another part of the classroom and interact with different student (as was done before). Students will be asked to estimate how many people they believe were infected. The number of interactions will be documented on the white board during each stage of the experiment including the number of people infected. Students will then create a graph showing how infection spreads with increased number of interactions. The graph will be created using the online graphing site below.

Assignment:
Day 1- Create Blabberize
Day 2- Infectious disease lab and graph

Technology used:
Computer, graphing website

The technology used in this lesson changes the teaching / learning in this way:
Students gain insight as to how someone made an discovery in the field of infectious disease by telling the story of how they did it through the Blabberize tool. The technology will teach a student step by step how to create a graph using a computer. This will give a visual representation of how disease spreads.

Sample Blabberize


Sample Graph
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/index.asp?ID=94544d8ffc6b4293b023c15895e04e4c